Project Purley

The Local History Society for Purley on Thames

The Roads and Pathways of Purley

Background

It was the Romans who introduced the concept of a road into Britain as an official route between two places which was maintained at the public expense. Previously all that there had been were tracks across the countryside where one person followed another along what was seen as the most convenient route from one place to another. Within a village the roads were merely gaps between houses. Occasionally they had names, but usually these merely indicated where the road went to.

From the fifth to the seventeenth centuries the old Roman roads were not maintained and gradually deteriorated into tracks across the countryside, indistinguishable from the other roads except that they tended to be straight and were less prone to turn into mud baths when it rained.

In mediaeval times, when water transport was not practicable, goods were carried mainly on the back of pack horses . There were carts but they were heavy and inefficient and likely to get stuck in the mud. The sixteenth century saw the introduction of carriages which could be drawn at considerable speed over a level surface and the demands grew for better roads. Acts were passed requiring land owners to maintain the main roads through their properties and creating the office of Surveyor of the Road, a parish official charged with the duty of seeing that the work was carried out.

The result was still not satisfactory and so trusts were established to maintain long stretches of road. They were empowered to charge users tolls and to set up collecting stations. At these the road was barred by pikes which were lifted or turned aside when the traveller had paid. The roads thus became known as Turnpikes and associated in everyone’s minds with the stage coaches which plied along their length.

The Surveyors continued to function until the twentieth century. The Local Government Acts at the end of the nineteenth century passed responsibilities to the County Council and they gradually assumed more and more control over the roads and their maintenance.

Footpaths and bridleways were given official recognition in the 1930s and there has been several numbering schemes. In the 1970s Purley Parish Council extended the official (County Council) numbering scheme to identify all the other paths and roads. References to these numbers are made below and details are in section

The Old Ways

Until around the turn of the 19th/20th centuries, it was difficult to differentiate between roads and footpaths. In the 16th century one would have clearly identified the main road from Reading to Pangbourne (now A329) and possibly the alternative route running from the Roebuck past the pond through the village (Purley Village Street) as roads. Long Lane and Westbury Lane might also have been seen as roads, being more heavily used than other ways.

There would have been very little differentiation between the ways radiating from Purley Magna to neighbouring villages:-

To Pangbourne (Village Street) (path70)
To Reading (Village Street (path 71)
To Sulham (Goosecroft Lane (paths 28/29))
To Theale (Long Lane)
to Calcot (FP5)
To Tilehurst (BW6)
To the lock and Mapledurham (Marsh Lane) (path 74)
To Westbury (Purley Parva) (path 73)
and towards the Manor House. (Path 76)

From Westbury ways went

To Purley Village, (path 73)
To Pangbourne (FP2),
To Theale (FP11),
To Hardwick (path 77)
and To Whitchurch (FP8).

When roads began to be tarred towards the end of the 18th century only the main road, the Village Street, Long Lane/Purley Lane and Westbury Lane carried enough traffic to warrant serious work on them.

The Principal Roads

The principal roads of Purley are dealt with in other sections as follows:-

Long Lane/Purley Lane

Westbury Lane

The Village Street

The Reading to Oxford Road

Sulham Lane

Other minor roads

Some proposals which never came off are:-

The Purley/Pangbourne Bypass

The M4 Motorway

Minor Roads

Estate roads will be dealt with elsewhere (see The Built Environment) Other minor roads, roads that have disappeared and private roads are dealt with below.

Goosecroft Lane (Paths 28/29)

Of the other ancient roads of Purley very little trace remains. From the highway between the fields of Illsley Piddle and Wooltham lead a short road known as Goosecroft Lane because it lead to a field known as Goosecroft. It continued on towards Stoneham and Sulham. The lower 50 yards (path 28) was known as Beech Lane but identified as Beech Road for many years because it lead from the hammer head at the end Beech Road to Reading Road. The Parish Council got into a bitter dispute with the County Council when it was proposed to close this after the extension to Beech Lane was constructed in the 1970s. It was finally left to atrophy and the Beech Road signs eventually removed.

The upper part (path 29) is now used to provide access to the Recreation Ground and was surfaced by the Sports and Social Club and Parish Council in 1982. Eventually the Parish Council won and the stretch fromthe A329 to the Recreation ground was officially named Goosecroft Lane

Marsh Lane (Path74)

There was once a road called Marsh Lane which led from the village street, branching north midway between the pond and the church, towards the ancient marshes which lay alongside the river. This also led to the lock and weir and to the bridge between Purley and Mapledurham which seemed to have existed in the fourteenth century. The road was used to carry chalk down to the river from the chalk pits in Purley and Tilehurst. An alternative road further west seems to have been constructed later and traces have been found in the gardens of properties in the present river estate.

The road originated in an agreement made in the 14th century between Sir Thomas Huscarle of Purley and Sir John Bardolff of Mapledurham. Under it Sir John constructed the road over Sir Thomas’ land and a stout wooden bridge over the river. Sir Thomas provided the chalk and probably took his corn to be ground at Mapledurham Mill as this seems to have been Sir John’s main interest in the matter.

Other Ancient Roads

Several tracks lead southwards from Purley:

one to Calcot from the top of what is now New Hill (footpath 5)

and another to Tilehurst which lead from where the old road to the village joined the highway (footpath 6).

Another track led from Purley Parva to Sulham and Theale crossing The Highway just east of Westbury Lane (footpath 11).

Finally a track led from Purley towards Tidmarsh from Sulham Lane (footpath 9).

The lines of these ancient tracks have been partly preserved by modern footpaths as indicated.

Official Footpaths

Official footpaths are numbered and preceded by a two letter code:-

FP Footpaths for pedestrians only
BR Bridleway for pedestrians and Riders
BW By-way additionally for wheeled vehicles

The footpaths of Purley are:-

FP1
FP2
FP3
FP4
FP5 - from the top of New Hill to Huscarle Way
FP6
FP7
FP8
FP9
FP10 - from the west end of Beech Road to Sulham Woods
FP11

Unadopted Roads

The following roads were not suitable for making up in 1977 and hence have remained unadopted, although open to the public. The ground of the roads is owned by the PPPOA.

54 River Gardens
55 River Gardens to Wintringham Way
56 Park Walk
57 The Short
58 Oak Tree Walk
59 Mapledurham Drive

Private Roads

The following roads are private roads with no public right of access

40 Mapledurham Drive to Mapledurham Lock
This road was built on a causeway to permit access to the lock by motor vehicles. Previously it had been served only by river traffic. It is protected by a locked gate on FP 4 near the end of Wintringham Way and a cattle grid from where it veers west from FP4 by the entrance to the River Meadow. Although access is denied to motor traffic it is well used by pedestrians and has been used in 1993 as a diversionary route for the towpath when work had to be done at the lock.

77 Extension of Westbury Lane
This track extended Westbury Lane past Westbury Farm to the River and the crossing to Hardwick. Although it has been walked by many people it has never been a public route in modern times and is now closed off.

78 North-western leg of Westbury Lane.
The part of Westbury Lane which turns west and then north now has been curtailed so that the north western leg is within Springs Farm. This was done for secrurity reasons after a protracted negotiation in which the Parish Council stood up to the County in maintaining that ancient parish roads still belonged legally to the parish even though adopted as highway and could not be disposed of to adjacent landowners when highway rights were removed.

Paths which have now disappeared

70 The Western Extension of Purley Village Street
This formed part of the diversion from the main highway through the village. It carried on beyond Purley Lane and eventually merged with Westbury Lane


71 Link from the pond to the Roebuck
This was the eastern part of the diversion. It ran from the village pond, located at the junction of Mapledurham Drive and Purley Village, towards the church and manor house and then turned right and wound its way up the side of the hill to rejoin the main road just before the Roebuck

72 The old line of the Turnpike
While the manor house was beside the church the turnpike ran in almost a straight line from the top of what is now New Hill to the Roebuck. It was diverted south around 1800 to its present line

73 Purley Village to Westbury
This was the main link between the two Purley’s; Purley Parva and Purley Magna. It ran from the bottom of Purley Lane diagonally across the East Field to Westbury. It disappeared around the time of the enclosures in the mid 19th century presumably superseded by what are now footpaths 2 and 3.

75 Eastern Boundary of Purley Parish
A rather more shadowy way lay along the parish boundary to the east. It ran from the river at the Roebuck Ferry and headed south towards Tilehurst.

76 Church to Manor House
This road was lost when the manor house was demolished and Purley Park built. From 1800 or so until the 1930s access to Purley Park was closed to the public at the gate at the bottom of New Hill. It was used once again by people between the 1930s and the 1970s but is now within the Marina and not traceable.

N5010 23/7/2017

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